AWALI Project

Werklund Foundation provides empowering opportunities for youth in our community and across the world. To accomplish this, we partner with other like-minded institutions that share our vision of excellence in leadership education.

In July of 2008, the Werklund Foundation and AWALI Group united around the concept of providing students with a quality education and strong literacy skills to improve their lives and the communities in East Africa. As a lead investor, The Werklund Foundation has helped AWALI establish Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) in East Africa. In 2007, AKU-IED, EA opened a campus in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, and in a short period of time it has become one of the most pioneering and exemplary teacher training institutes in East Africa. The Institute has graduated 74 education leaders from their Masters in Education program and trained over 880 teachers through its various certificate programs. To date, the Institute has positively impacted over 58,000 primary and secondary school aged children. This impact continues to escalate as new educators and administrators are welcomed into the program.

Building on this success, the Werklund Foundation recently joined the AWALI group in championing a unique partnership between AKU-IED and Room to Read (RtR) called “AWALI Reads”. AWALI Reads is a targeted literacy intervention program in Tanzania that combines AKU’s World-class teacher training and support with RTR’s renowned literate-rich environments created by establishing libraries, improving schools, and publishing children’s books in local languages. An estimated 81,500 primary school students will benefit from the program over the next five years. AWALI Reads interventions will significantly improve the education outcomes of Tanzanian children by providing leadership training and resources to teachers to help them develop basic literacy skills in students and create school environments, including libraries, that support learning.”